TitleNews Online Archive

TitleNews Online Archive

Mortgage Application Volume Down Slightly In Latest Survey

February 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 18. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 727.9, a decrease of 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 732.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 1.3 percent compared with last week but was down 5.5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 1.3 percent to 417.8 from 423.3 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 0.1 percent to 2532.0 from 2530.1 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 0.2 percent to 1091.7 from 1093.8 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 6.5 percent to 120.9 from 129.3 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 49.3 percent of total applications from 49.9 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained at 30.7 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.67 percent from 5.50 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.29 from 1.27 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.19 percent from 5.09 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 1.30 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.18 percent from 4.10 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.03 from 1.07 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.